The current development towards truly mobile computing and networking has brought on the evolvement of various access technologies that also provide the users with access to the Internet when they are outside their own home network. At present, wireless Internet access is typically based on either short-range wireless systems or mobile networks, or both.
Short-range wireless systems have a typical range of a few tens of meters to one hundred meters. They often combine with systems wired to the Internet and/or with a mobile network to provide communication over long distances. The category of short-range wireless systems includes wireless personal area networks (PANs) and wireless local area networks (WLANs). They have the common feature of operating in unlicensed portions of the radio spectrum, usually either in the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band or in the 5 GHz unlicensed band.
Wireless personal area networks are cost-effective and use low power wireless devices that have a typical range of about ten meters. The best-known example of wireless personal area network technology is BLUETOOTH™, which uses the 2.4 GHz ISM band. It provides a peak air link speed of one Mbps, and power consumption low enough for use in personal, portable electronics such as PDAs and mobile phones. Wireless local area networks generally operate at higher peak speeds of about 2 to 100 Mbps and have a longer range, which requires greater power consumption.
The development referred to above has also brought on the evolvement of so-called ad-hoc networks, which offer unrestricted mobility without any underlying infrastructure. The nodes of an ad-hoc network are often mobile, in which case the network is called a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET). Unlike traditional wireless networks, ad-hoc networks need not necessarily rest on an underlying infrastructure, such as base stations. Instead, the nodes rely on each other to keep the network connected. In an ad-hoc network, one or more nodes may therefore act as a router transmitting data/messages to other nodes of the network, and intermediate ad-hoc nodes may relay the data/messages between two nodes located far apart from each. Standalone ad-hoc networks are useful at least whenever it is impossible to use a fixed network infrastructure due to geographical, terrestrial, or time constraints, for example. Local ad-hoc networks can also be integrated into legacy networks, such as mobile networks. The dynamically changing topology of an ad-hoc network sets high requirements for the routing protocols used in the ad-hoc nodes. This is one reason why activities in the development of the ad-hoc networks have for the present related mainly to routing aspects.
Along with the above-discussed development, the number of radio technologies utilized in the terminals, and also the number of multimode (and multi-standard) wireless terminals will increase. With an increasing number of technologies used for networking, the diversity of the terminals will increase within future networks. For example, the trunk node of an ad-hoc network, which acts as an access point or gateway for other ad-hoc nodes in the ad-hoc network, communicates with an access point of a radio access network and with at least one other ad-hoc node being its subordinate node.
As even terminals provided with the same connectivity standards may be otherwise differently outfitted, and thus have different capabilities despite the same connectivity standard, selecting an optimal quality of service and optimal radio resources for communication sessions will be more complex in the future.
Another drawback of the above-discussed development relates to the user-friendliness of the communication devices. When multiple radio technologies are integrated into one terminal, operating the different radio technologies becomes easily too technical for an average user. Especially, choosing the optimal radio technology in a communication environment comprising a plurality of different multimode terminals will be difficult. Therefore, new mechanisms are needed by which the technologies can be hidden from the user while simultaneously enabling efficient operation and easy operability of the terminal.
The present invention seeks to accomplish a solution by means of which the above drawbacks may be alleviated or eliminated.